Real or Surreal. Do you throw accuracy out the window for "better" sound?

The love of music and audiophilia are two entirely separate issues. You do not even have to love music to be an audiophile!

Sadly your claim is not even wrong! 😁

Musical learning and understanding and audiophilia done right are acoustically and psycho-acoustically RELATED... Claiming that an obsessive compulsive disorder for gear upgrade is the center of a hobby instead of acoustic and psycho-acoustics understanding and music learning and understanding is preposterous...

By the way i am a relatively informed audiophile and a music lover...

Gear obsession with no love or understanding for music nor for his acoustics and psycho-acoustic embeddings is a psychological disorder not a hobby ...

And acoustic and music experience are about optimization not about an inexistant "perfection" through gear upgrades purchase...

@mijostyn 

Expensive curse? I guess the expensive part depends on how well off you are, and how expensive your tastes are. The curse part depends on whether it ultimately makes you unhappy and unwell. 

If you're constantly moving heavy speakers and amplifiers in and out of the room, at least you're getting some exercise. 

@mahgister 

Gear obsession with no love or understanding for music nor for his  acoustics and psycho-acoustic embeddings    is a psychological disorder not a hobby ...

I agree, and it's a type of psychological disorder that's not uncommon. The equipment or whatever the object of desire becomes the ultimate end point in our minds when it is supposed to be a means to an end. The question to keep in mind is what do I really, really want? What are all the ways I might be able to get there? Are there ways to get there that are better than others, with fewer drawbacks and side effects? 

If I go down the rabbit hole too far I start to see that ultimately I really don't want anything. So I have to back off and settle with the notion that I want to be happy and physically well. I'm not really sure I even want that, but I'm sure I don't want to be unhappy and physically unwell. 

I agree, and it’s a type of psychological disorder that’s not uncommon. The equipment or whatever the object of desire becomes the ultimate end point in our minds when it is supposed to be a means to an end. The question to keep in mind is what do I really, really want? What are all the ways I might be able to get there? Are there ways to get there that are better than others, with fewer drawbacks and side effects?

If I go down the rabbit hole too far I start to see that ultimately I really don’t want anything. So I have to back off and settle with the notion that I want to be happy and physically well. I’m not really sure I even want that, but I’m sure I don’t want to be unhappy and physically unwell.

You are right!

But i will add that it is not only the mere question about what we really want with the gear we purchase, it is about BASIC ACOUSTICS knowledge , which is missing among obsessed audiophiles who focus on gear ownership instead of learnings.. ...

And being not an english speaker i made the mistake for years speaking about acoustics to write it with no (s) at the end of the world... But acoustic in the singular form is an adjective relating to room physical acoustic not to the more general science called acoustics which include room acoustic and psycho-acoustic...

@mahgister @inna "But there is way more to upgrading and optimizing than just reaching smoothness."

I understand where you are coming from. When I first plugged in my cost-no-object DIY phono/pre, I wasn’t sure I liked it - where were the high frequencies? It was all too smooth and too easy to like - then I played some Chopin, and the piano on the system sounded a lot more like the piano upstairs. Vocalists sounded like people that I knew. I realized that I had been listening to more distortion than music.

My pursuit of smoothness is predicated on a certain basic level of equipment, like not a single electrolytic cap anywhere in the signal path. Even so, YMMV.